India as Known to Panini: A Study of the Cultural Material in the Ashtadhyayi c10.s1.19

c10.s1.19

*EDUCATION OF WOMEN*—Both Pāṇini and Patañjali refer to women admitted to Vedic study in the *Charaṇas*. The term *jāti* in *sūtra* IV.1.63 (*Jāter-astrī-vishayād-ayopadhāt*) includes the female members of *gotras* and *charaṇas* (*gotraṁ cha charaṇāni cha*, *Bhāshya* II.225). Thus a woman student of the Kaṭha school was called *Kaṭhī*, and of the Ṛigvedic Bahvṛicha school *Bahvṛichī*. It appears that the three principles of naming the male students applied equally to the female students also. For example, Kātyāyana and Patañjali refer to Brāhmaṇa women students studying the grammatical system of Āpiśali and thence called *Āpiśalā Brāhmaṇī* (*Pūrvasūtra nirdeśo vāpiśalam adhīta iti*, IV.1.14, *vār*. 3). Kātyāyana here refers to a rule of a previous writer, in all probability Āpiśali himself. Similarly *Pāṇinīyā Brāhmaṇī* (*Kāśikā* on IV.2.64). Female students were also admitted to the study of Mīmāṁsā, e.g. *Kāśakṛitsnī*, a female student studying the Mīmāṁsā work of Kāśakṛitsni, son of Kāśakṛitsna (*Bhāshya*, 11.206). Pāṇini refers to female students as *Chhātrī* and their hostels *chhātrī-śālā* (VI.2.86). The wife of an *āchārya* is referred to as *āchāryānī* (IV.1.49), but *āchāryā* was the title of female teachers corresponding in status to an *āchārya* (counter-example in the *Kāśikā*). Patañjali refers to the female teacher Audameghyā and her pupils (IV.1.78; II.230). The term *Kaṭhī-vṛindārikā*, the foremost female student of the *Kaṭha Śākhā*, points to the success of women as students of Vedic schools. Patañjali refers to a female student as *adhyetrī* and a female novice as *māṇavikā* (IV.193; II.249).